To illustrate how outrageous Barbie's body measurements are, an artist has redesigned the doll to reflect the size of an average, real-life woman.
Nickolay Lamm used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a 3-D model of a "doll" with the average 19-year-old woman's measurements. He then used Photoshop to make it look like Barbie.
"People argue that a toy can't do any harm. However, if we criticize skinny models, we should at least be open to the possibility that Barbie may
negatively influence young girls as well," Lamm told the Huffington Post. "Furthermore, a realistically proportioned Barbie actually looks pretty good."
Barbie has long been blamed for contributing to young girls' negative body images because of her impossible body measurements.
"The anxieties [young girls] experience are the product of a society and media culture that prizes a thin image for women above anything else, and devalues any woman who strays outside the false 'norm' of a skinny body,"
a blogger on "Dying To Be Barbie" wrote. "In pursuit of that unattainable goal, they will literally starve themselves to death. They are dying to be like Barbie."
One website put the doll's size in perspective.
According to iVillage.com, if Barbie were an actual woman:
-She would be 5'9" tall and weigh just 110 pounds.
-Her Body Mass Index would be 16.24, which fits the weight criteria for anorexia.
-She wouldn’t be able to menstruate.
-She'd have a 39" bust, an 18" waist, and 33" hips.
-She'd wear a size 3 shoe.
-She would have to walk on all fours because of her proportions.
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